Meals Made Ahead: desserts

Friday, November 5, 2010

Pecan Snowball Cookies

1 cup pecans
1 cup unsalted butter, at room
1 3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/4 tsp kosher salt
2 cups AP flour

Heat oven to 350° F. Spread the pecans on a rimmed baking sheet and toast for 8 minutes. Let cool and roughly chop.

With an electric mixer, beat the butter and 1 cup of the sugar until fluffy. Mix in the vanilla and almond extracts and salt. Gradually add the flour, mixing until just incorporated. Mix in the pecans.

Shape the dough into tablespoon-size balls and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Transfer half the balls to a second parchment-lined baking sheet, spacing them 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake until lightly golden, 18 to 22 minutes. Let cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes.

Place 1/2 cup of the sugar in a large bowl. Toss the warm cookies in the sugar and return to the baking sheet. Sift the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar over the cookies before serving.

*To freeze: Instead of refrigerating the balls of dough, freeze them on the baking sheet before storing them in bags for up to 2 months. To bake, follow the instructions, baking from frozen, and use the upper end of the time range.

from a Real Simple article ; original recipe; see also Raspberry Pinwheel cookies and Lemon Glazed Cookies.

Although we made other recipes from this series for MMA, we didn't do this one last year. I made these on my own and, holy cow!, they were a huge hit with everyone who got to taste one.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Peanut Butter Bars

1 cup (two sticks) butter
2 cups creamy peanut butter
2 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 cups chocolate chips
1/3 cup milk

Melt butter and peanut butter together in a sauce pan, stirring well. Remove from heat and add graham cracker crumbs and powdered sugar. Spread the mixture into the bottom of a pan (jelly roll pan for thin bars, 9x13 for thicker bars). Chill until firm. Melt the chocolate chips with the milk. Spread chocolate layer over crumb mixture. Chill until firm.

Cut into bars (24 or 48 depending on pan size). Wrap individually in plastic wrap or separate layers with waxed paper. Store in the freezer, if they last that long!

Frozen Peanut Butter Bars from 30 Day Gourmet.

About this blog:

We are a group of moms who get together about once a month or so to cook Meals Made Ahead.

Meals Made Ahead are great because it's nice to always have something in the freezer for those nights that are busy, those nights when you can't think of anything to make, those nights when you have nothing to cook with because you didn't feel like dragging two screaming kids through the grocery store, those nights when you just don't feel like cooking.

Sure, we could do this on our own. But it's much more fun to cook with friends (and share the clean up!)

The secret ingredient

"If a woman could see the sparks of light going forth from her fingertips when she is cooking, and the substance of light that goes into the food she handles, she would be amazed to see how much of herself she charges into the meals that she prepares for her family and friends. It is one of the most important and least understood activities of life, that the radiation and feeling that go into the preparation of food affect everyone who partakes of it. And this activity should be unhurried, peaceful, and happy because the substance of the lifestream performing the service flows into that food and is eaten, and actually becomes part of the energy of the receiver. It would be better that an individual did not eat at all than to eat food that has been prepared under a feeling of anger, apathy, resentment, depression, or any outward pressure."
~Maha Chohan, Electrons